Make It Rain

My thoughts and prayers go out to victims of Colorado wildfires. I don't know what I'd do if I had to watch my house burn or worse.

You can help by purchasing one of these T-shirts. Donate, dance, do anything to make it rain out there.

Happy Belated Father's Day, Dad

I remember going to work with my dad when I was four or five years old. Saratoga Springs was like Gotham City to me and he may as well have been Bruce Wayne, a reporter covering the police beat for the Daily Gazette newspaper. I recall the dusty smell of his office and stacks of old newspapers in every corner. Back then, manual typewriters were preferred over computers, and I can still hear the clink-clank-clack of keypresses and basket shifts.

He began his news reporting career in the late '70s, back when there were five people on staff for every section of the paper: A business desk, a crime desk, arts & entertainment, and, of course, a sports desk. Cigarette smoke filled newsrooms, phones rang off the hook and reporters hustled to make deadline before the early edition (back when there was an early edition). The way he describes it, it was like a scene out of the City Room.

More than 30 years later, in his late 60's, and he's still at it. One of the few reporters that city officials actually enjoy talking to. His objectivity and professionalism is often rewarded with breaking news directly from the mayor or chief of police.

It's becoming more and more rare to find reporters like him. The old-school reporters. The ones who write news like Dylan wrote prose. And, believe me, news can be poetic. I've asked him a few times why he doesn't write a daily or weekly column. Isn't that what older, experienced reporters do? Nah, he'd say. But I could have answered my own question. He'd rather keep his opinions out of it and let the facts do the talking; preferring a meaty front-page story over pushing some idealistic point of view.

I hope to one day get him to write a book. That is, if he ever retires. I know it would be great. He's met so many fascinating people and has so many interesting stories. That, along with his love of classic American literature and knowledge of nearly every great battle that's ever taken place, would make for one hell of a memoir.

Father's Day was last week, but I'm thankful for and proud of my dad everyday.

Check out his bio here:

http://www.dailygazette.com/staff/lee-coleman/

Yes

It's OK to print

You hear it everywhere: paperless workflow, paperless office, etc. It sounds great in a marketing pitch and dovetails with the "going green" craze. Working for a paper manufacturer, I have a biased take on a "paperless society," but I'm tired of hearing how bad logging is and how the paper-making industry is to blame for deforestation.

First of all, it creates jobs -- one thing people SHOULD be worried about right now. Second, a wider demand among consumers for certified sustainable paper means that more logging companies are practicing sustainable forest management, which takes into mind sensitive habitats, wildlife, rivers and watersheds, etc. Sustainable management means no clear-cutting and calls for removal of the poorest quality trees in stages over a 70-150 period. This gives the better quality trees more room to grow and drop seeds for the next generation and keeps the forest healthy and productive for the long term.

So don't believe the hype, it's OK to print. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of Americans. Working forests are good for the environment and provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America today than we had 100 years ago.

Don't get me wrong, it makes me sick to see the deforestation in the Amazon (mainly being clear cut for high-value timber used in fancy furniture sold in the U.S.), and elsewhere in the world, and therefore I would encourage people to demand their forest products come from a certified sustainably managed forest.

Thanks for letting me vent. I'm going to explode the next time Joe-know-it-all on Facebook shares his misinformed views about politics, business and society.

(5/15/12 -- from a recent What They Think newsletter)

"As I have said many times before, the environmental benefits of reducing or eliminating print and paper are not especially clear, and are often rather dubious, but the danger is conflating other benefits of reducing print and paper with environmental benefits:

Although Noonan says more and more universities do have committees interested in the environmental benefits of saving paper, the first order of business is saving time and money. To wit, the University of Oregon saved $200,000 by eliminating paper course/faculty reviews (and scanning costs/labor). The University of Washington’s online admissions system helped it avoid having to send 30,000 pieces of mail.

If there is a drive toward a paperless office (or, more likely, a more modest "less-paper office") it's being driven by cost, convenience, and de-cluttering, and not so much by green concerns. And that's fine. Chacun a son gout. (Studies have found that even people who opt for paperless billing often end up printing out the invoices themselves. So, basically, the cost of printing has been shifted from the invoicer to the invoicee. Clever of them, eh? I think of this as a hidden fee so I still refuse to choose paperless statements.)

Are we inching closer to a paperless office? I doubt it, but:

According to the GreenBiz State of the Paper Industry 2011 report, total paper consumption in North America declined 24 percent between 2006 and 2009, and per-capita consumption of paper in North America dropped from more than 652 pounds per year in 2005 to 504 pounds per year in 2009."

Cheers,

- J

I don't often get the opportunity to work with Illustrator at work; so when I do, I have fun with it. This logo (or whatever you want to call it) took me about an hour to create and will be used for a slide presentation at a sales meeting, never to be seen again.

Levon Helm 1940-2012

Stream The New Jack White

iTunes is streaming the new Jack White solo album, Blunderbuss, free for a limited time. Head to your iTunes store and search "Jack White" or "Blunderbuss" to listen.

blun·der·buss   [bluhn-der-buhs]

noun
1. a short musket of wide bore with expanded muzzle to scatter shot, bullets, or slugs at close range.
2. an insensitive, blundering person.